Google Now is great, but it's not the only way to get useful information from Google on your smartphone. If you want Google Now-style data, but don't have a Jelly Bean (or rooted Ice Cream Sandwich) phone, just fire up Google Talk on your smartphone and add guru@googlelabs.com to your contact list. Ask Guru what you want to know, and get instant, useful replies.

Granted, this works best with Android devices, since Android has a built-in GTalk client. iOS users will have to use a third party app, like our favorite, Imo, to get the same features. Once Guru is in your contacts list, commands like "weather: city" will give you the current conditions in that location, and "score: team" will help you find the score of a game you're interested in, or the last game your favorite team played. Here are all of the commands guru understands as far as we can tell:

It's not totally Google Now, because it doesn't have useful features like traffic alerts, turn-by-turn directions, and other device control features, but it does a great job of answering questions and giving you quick access to web searches and other useful information. Give it a try and let us know what you think in the discussions below.